We thought it would be both enlightening and fun to introduce Gustav Holst’s stupendous astrological odyssey, The Planets, by playing Hans Zimmer’s modern depictions of space travel. Music from Interstellar, Dune, Inception, and even Darkstar (from Top Gun: Maverick) sets the stage for Holst’s cosmic masterpiece in the second half. We close the season with the largest orchestra of the year, joined by the ethereal voices of Mobile’s Singing Children. It’s a spectacular finale—and a journey that reaches far beyond Earth.
Scott Speck, conductor
Mobile’s Singing Children, chorus
Saturday, May 2, 2026 at 7:30 pm
Sunday, May 3, 2026 at 2:30 pm
Saenger Theatre
This concert, including intermission, is approximately 1 hour, 50 minutes.
Please review the venue’s security policies including the use of clear bags/purses only by clicking here.
PROGRAM
Hans Zimmer: Music from Interstellar, Inception, Dune, Darkstar and Top Gun: Maverick
(b. 1957)
INTERMISSION
Gustav Holst: The Planets
(1874-1934)
TakeNote! Learn More, Enjoy More
Enhance your concert experience with Take-Note! Join music experts and explore the world of classical music from an in-depth perspective. This informative pre-concert talk begins at 6:30 p.m. before Saturday classical performances and 1:30 p.m. before Sunday classical performances in Room 1927 adjacent to the Saenger entrance on Joachim Street.
Bring the kids for FREE on Sunday!
Through MSO’s Big Red Ticket program, sponsored by Alabama Power Foundation and the Figures Foundation, students in grades K-12 can attend any classical Sunday matinee FREE when accompanied by a paying adult. It’s a great cultural opportunity and an amazing concert experience! Seats are limited, so please purchase tickets by phone at (251)432-2010. Please no children under 5 and no babies in arms. Want to bring a student on a Saturday? Student tickets are just $10.
SPECK SPEAKS
Music Director Scott Speck discusses the concert
“What does space sound like? For Gustav Holst, writing in the shadow of World War I, the answer was mythic and symbolic—each planet a distinct force of personality, drawn not from science but astrology. A century later, Hans Zimmer has brought his own vision of the cosmos to life through his film music, giving modern space epics their emotional weight and sonic identity. This program pairs two radically different approaches to the same timeless fascination: how to make music worthy of the stars.
Zimmer’s film scores aren’t traditional melodies with themes and variations—they’re immersive soundscapes that pulse, shimmer, and swell. Interstellar evokes the fragility of human emotion stretched across light-years. Dune taps into a mythic, windswept austerity that feels ancient and futuristic all at once. Inception explores layered realities through rhythm and scale, while Darkstar from Top Gun: Maverick echoes the thrill and solitude of pushing past Earth’s edge. Taken together, these pieces give us a modern musical language for the unknown.
Zimmer’s approach to scoring space isn’t about spectacle—it’s about scale, and how tiny we often feel within it. He uses time itself as a musical device: ticking clocks, decaying echoes, long-held chords that stretch beyond gravitational pull. His music reflects the vastness of space not with grandiosity, but with a kind of suspended awe. It draws us in not by sounding “galactic,” but by reminding us how human we remain, even in orbit.
When Holst’s The Planets arrives in the second half, it feels almost like stepping through a telescope into another universe. His music is more direct, more theatrical—but no less cosmic. Each movement builds a world out of pure orchestral color: the menace of Mars, the tranquility of Venus, the grandeur of Jupiter, the solemnity of Saturn, the eerie fade of Neptune. And when heard after Zimmer’s futuristic sound worlds, Holst’s suite glows in a new light—not as a relic of the past, but as part of an ongoing musical conversation with the stars.
Both composers give us soundtracks for the vast and unknowable. Yet where Zimmer often conjures the disorientation of space—with all its silence and loneliness—Holst gives us an ordered cosmos, filled with symbolism and meaning. The pairing reminds us that our fascination with the stars has always been both scientific and spiritual—and that music, more than any other art form, can hold both at once.”
– Scott Speck